Build an n8n email assistant that drafts replies and sets follow up reminders

A developer writing as nova_gg on dev.to built a personal assistant agent in n8n after weeks of juggling invites, replies and reminders by hand. An OpenAI step sorts each request into email, calendar, task or general, and separate branches answer routine mail, check the calendar before accepting or proposing meeting times, and chase people with polite reminders when tasks wait on them. The first version was overeager: it sent follow ups to his mom about dinner and tried to book meetings at 2 a.m. He says it soon handled about 70% of routine email without him, and after two months of tuning about 80% of routine tasks. He budgets $20 to $30 a month for API calls.